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NAADS celebrates feat
THE National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) programme was created out of failure of the past agricultural extension programmes to bring about increased farm productivity, despite substantial investments over the years. As NAADS cerebrates five years since its establishment Ronald Kalyango talked to Dr. Silim Nahdy the executive director. Excepts...
Question. It is five years since the NAADS programme came into existence. How far have you reached out to farmers?
Answer: As at June 2006, NAADS was covering 49 (71%) districts and 346 (36%) sub-counties and this financial year it will roll out to 63 districts covering a total of 517 sub-counties. Approximately 30,000 farmers groups and over 600,000 households are directly benefiting from the NAADS programme.
There are two years left for the first phase of the seven years of the NAADS programme. What should Ugandans expect?
We are optimistic that the whole country would be covered provided resources are availed by the end of the phase. The impact has been impressive, cost-effective, productivity has risen and all farmers should expect access to NAADS services by the end of the next two years.
Dr. Nahdy makes a point in one of the NAADS workshops
Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) addresses seven components and NAADS is one of them. How has the stagnation of the other components affected your operations?
We have extended a number of technologies to farmers and many have adopted them. Much as the micro-finance institutions have reached different parts of the country, their design doesn’t suit agricultural interests. The poor roads also hinder farmers to transport the products to market places, while rural electrification which had started in high-gear is currently constrained by the current loadshedding.
NAADS activities, especially the crop sector, are heavily dependent on the rainfall seasonality patterns which hinder production capacity. What should farmers expect this financial year?
We have so far embarked on a serious campaign of training farmers on how to harvest rain water. So far, 109 treadle pumps have been given out to 15 districts of Wakiso, Kamuli, Mukono, Luweero, Busia, Kabale, Arua, Soroti, Kiruhura, Mbarara, Ibanda, Hoima, Mbale, Nakapiripirit and Lira and 22 technicians from 10 districts have been trained on the assembling, operation, maintenance and repairing of the pumps.
What do you consider as your major single achievement?
The fact that farmers these days talk about farming as a profitable business is our biggest achievement so far. Soroti district used to be considered as an area of potatoes, but the farmers have over the years changed to citrus cultivation following NAADS intervention; in Busia district, the groundnuts are doing well and also farmers in Kabarole have successfully adopted the cultivation of bananas and are getting reasonable profits.
The LRA war in northern Uganda that has held the area backwards for 20 years is almost coming to an end. What plans do you have for these people?
Close to 1,700 acres of land has been put to use in the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in the districts of Kumi, Katakwi, Kotido, Lira, Pader, Gulu, Apac, Adjumani and Kaberamaido. The hitherto abandoned land has been cultivated with sorghum, groundnuts, citrus fruits, apiculture, upland rice and beans. It has been tricky working in such areas like Nakapiripirit, but ox-cultivation has steadily picked up and we hope that farmers would benefit from the programme provided there are no constraints in the release of the funds.
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